There are some things Marc Randazzo can`t do yet, but he got the basics right Thursday night. He brought the crowd to the Horizon, then brought it to its feet.
Randazzo, a Chicago native, scored a third-round TKO over Randy McGaugh before a surprising crowd of 6,711. It was supposed to be an eight-round light-heavyweight preliminary, but to the boisterous crowd, Randazzo obviously was the show.
He knocked McGaugh down just before the bell ended the second round in a welter of confusion. Then he dumped him in a neutral counter with a right-left combination just 22 seconds into the third.
That was enough for referee Tim Adams, even though McGaugh quickly bounced to his feet.
In the main event, Harold Brazier knocked down Dwayne Swift in the eighth round and scored a unanimous 12-round decision to retain his IBF Inter-continental junior welterweight title.
Brazier had an easy time with Swift, who won only one round on the judge`s cards. He had Swift in trouble briefly in the sixth, and then in the eighth landed a right flush on the face that sent Swift to his knees for a three count.
McGaugh, a late substitute for Randazzo`s scheduled opponent, was obviously no world beater. ”But he`s a game guy,” observed veteran trainer Angelo Dundee, who worked Randazzo`s corner.
”Marc hit this guy some hellacious shots. I don`t know how he stayed up.”
McGaugh didn`t stay up for long. Randazzo scored with good combinations in the first round, then staggered McGaugh with a straight right about 10 seconds into the second. And he rocked him again with a left hook.
Just before the round ended, Randazzo connected with a left hook and a straight right that put McGaugh on his back. He beat the count, but when the bell sounded, both fighters thought the fight had been stopped.
”I didn`t know what was going on,” said Randazzo. ”The guy kind of shook my hand, and then they said it wasn`t over.”
McGaugh`s trainer finally came into the ring and led his fighter back to his corner. But soon after the third round started, Randazzo landed a jolting right and caught McGaugh with a left hook as he was going down.
”I`ve still got a long way to go,” said Randazzo, now 15-0-1. ”Nobody becomes a fighter overnight. It`s just a long teaching process. It`s like becoming a doctor or attorney, you don`t make it overnight. I`m a dreamer. I want to become a world champion.”
Dundee, who has been working with Randazzo for about two years, isn`t looking that far into the future yet. ”I`m trying to bring him along,”
Dundee said. ”Next year, we`ll start looking at the top 20. The kid`s a talent, but he doesn`t know it himself.”
Dundee wanted him to tighten up his punches and, for the most part, Randazzo succeeded. He gave himself only a B-minus for the fight, but said:
”I think I handled the pressure well. When you fight in front of your hometown fans, they have their expectations. But you`ve got to please yourself. I fought the same way I would have fought in Hammond.”
Earlier, another Dundee fighter, George Scott of Sweden, scored a first-round knockout over Aaron Shockley of Waukegan.
It was a fairly even round until just before the end when Scott, a southpaw, landed a straight left and then finished Shockley off with a right uppercut that dropped him for the count at 2:59.
Dundee`s third prospect didn`t fare as well. Chemek Saleta of Poland survived two first-round knockdowns by Chicago`s Tim Martin, but Martin caught him with a terrific right in the fifth round and KO`s him out at 2:31.
Another Chicago favorite, Louie Lomeli, scored a sixth-round TKO over Bryan Brown of Evansvile, Ind., in the final bout. Fighting in Chicago for the first time since his shocking first-round KO loss to Ramon Zavala 14 months ago, Lomeli controlled the fight from the outset and finally wore his opponent down.
He trapped Brown in his own corner near the end of the fifth round and delivered a succession of rights, sending Brown sprawling through the ropes. Brown beat the count, and the bell sounded before the fight could resume.
Early in the sixth round, Lomeli once more pinned Brown into a corner and was whaling away when referee Stan Berg stepped in to stop it at 1:05.
